‘Can anything good come out of southern California?’* (*hyperlink to John 1:46)1: the Christian critical reception of elliptical Jesus narratives
Clayton, Wickham (2020) ‘Can anything good come out of southern California?’* (*hyperlink to John 1:46)1: the Christian critical reception of elliptical Jesus narratives. In: The Bible onscreen in the new millennium: new heart and new spirit. Manchester University Press. ISBN 9781526136572
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Within the body of Biblical epics made from 2004 onwards, a few films are directly inspired by the Bible, but not adapted from specific events. Two such films focus on elliptical periods in the narrative of Jesus; events set during periods of time broadly identified, but not detailed in the Gospels. Last Days in the Desert (2015; dir. García) follows Jesus (Ewan McGregor) during his forty days and forty nights in the desert where he was tempted by Satan (also Ewan McGregor). In this film he struggles with the silence of God, his father, while witnessing the tense relationship between a father (Ciarán Hinds) and son (Tye Sheridan) who enlist his help as a carpenter. This parallel father/son relationship is clearly metaphorical for Jesus’s own perceived relationship with God. The Young Messiah (2016; dir. Nowrasteh) follows a year in the life of young Jesus (Adam Greaves-Neal) at an unspecified young age as his identity of the son of God gradually becomes clear to himself, his family, and the local government and military.
This chapter reviews the critical reception of these two films by Christian reviewers and organizations. The Young Messiah was produced in part by Chris Columbus and Mark Radcliffe (of Harry Potter film franchise fame), based on a novel by vampire maven Anne Rice, and distributed in North America by Universal subsidiary Focus Features. The film has been positively received by Christian critics, even attaining the “Faith-Friendly” seal of approval from The Dove Foundation, in spite of negative mainstream criticism. Last Days in the Desert, despite having a major star attached, had a weaker distribution deal and was praised for cinematic quality by both mainstream and Christian critics, though more hesitantly recommended by Christian critics for having a somewhat uncertain relationship to institutionally-approved faith. Furthermore, this chapter will explore the role of aesthetics, the faith status of the talent, and the role of Jesus’s represented humanity in the extent to which Christian critics recommended these films. This exploration into faith-based reception will aid in the understanding of the relationship between the texts in this modern wave of Biblical epics, and what Christians desire to see, stylistically and thematically, in clearly fictional explorations of their religion’s most sacred figures.
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